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Spinach and Coconut Yogurt Cake

Okay, people. Here’ve got a fluffy, moist (word cringe, sorry), delicately coconuty cake that is rammed full of wholesome spinach that you can’t even taste. We’ve even gone all trendy-like and iced it as a naked cake. It’s green and it looks like a party.

What are we celebrating? I’m not really sure. Perhaps nothing, perhaps everything. Do we even need a reason to bake a cake? We could look out in celebration at the wind, the rain, the sun, the clouds of grey and clouds of white, the birds, the trees, the cars, the fields, the glass towers, the urban wasteland, a brick wall. Look out of the windows we have and the windows we want. We could eat cake and celebrate life as it is, the life we had or the life we wish we were living. It doesn’t matter. We can eat cake happy and we can eat cake sad. We can eat cake.

So come with me and mess the kitchen, drop flour on the floor, forget our aprons and smear batter on our jeans. Join me in fishing rogue eggshell fragments out of the bowl, licking the spoon and doing the washing up. We can enjoy the creation and anticipation, then impatiently wait for it to cool. Later, looking out of houses, cars, boats or offices we can see views whose beauty or desolation has dulled into indifference as we eat a slice of cake and daydream grand thoughts of wonder. Or check our emails.

I baked this in charming little 6″ pans so that I could have all the layers of a celebration cake without it being HUGE. I iced it with whipped coconut cream icing, but you could try sweetened Greek yogurt, buttercream, cream cheese, anything. Tempted by spinach and coconut cake? Try it. You can’t taste the spinach, but that bright green colour is pretty special.

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. Grease and line two 9” cake pans (or three 6” pans, as I did in the pictures).

Steam or simmer the spinach for a few minutes until wilted. Run under cold water to refresh, drain and squeeze out any excess moisture. Puree with a hand blender and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat in well. Stir in the spinach puree, coconut milk, yogurt, vanilla and almond extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and coconut. Make a well in the centre and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix gently until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 50 minutes (9” pans) or 25 minutes (6” pans) or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Frost as desired.

I know, the perfect cut! It was completely accidental. I baked the cake but didn’t have time to photograph it, so I froze each layer. It was nearly thawed when I frosted it and thus was really easy to cut.

Kate, I came across your cake on G+, and I’m so glad I did! I think this will become one of my major resources for healthy desserts…I’m always looking for them. This cake is so unique, and I never in a million years considered putting spinach in a cake. Just one question…Would whole wheat flour make a suitable substitution for the all-purpose flour? I prefer not to eat white flour, but I also wouldn’t want to ruin the integrity of the cake.

Thanks so much Christine! I’d just try it with whole wheat flour. My bakes always start as experiments. Perhaps use a little less ww flour so it isn’t too dense. Good luck and please let me know how it goes with whole wheat flour.

This bake is stunning!!! I’m running a Bake Off at our school summer fair in a couple of weeks and the Technical Challenge for the grown ups is to use vegetables in a their bakes…. if you entered I think you’d win!!!!

I do love your combinations Kate! I am quite fond of a yogurt cake, for the moist texture and background sourness that is not too sharp…I can not imagine what it would be like with spinach but there is only one way to find out…x